“Roseability” – Idlewild
(Words/music: Idlewild, available on 100 Broken Windows, Capitol 2000)

I’m amazed how other songs can alter my impression of older songs.  When “Roseability” starts now, I hear the same pounding drums that start Interpol’s “PDA.”  It’s a fair comparison, as both start with this distinctive mid-tempo stomp a few bars ahead of a wave of guitars, but that’s not my point.  When I first heard Turn on the Bright Lights, I wasn’t thinking about where else I heard those drums.  However, when I dusted off the Idlewild record I rescued from a used bin a year or two earlier, I couldn’t help but think of the parallel. 

It’s indicative of my personal relationship with 100 Broken Windows.  I think I’ve alternately loved and forgotten this album more times than any other single album.  I don’t mean that I’ll just go months without listening to anything from the album – I actually go stretches of time forgetting its existence.  In a way, it’s a pleasant gift meaning that I can rediscover my favorites from this album semi-periodically.  “Roseability” usually brings me right back to the beginning of the decade when I would scour the used CD bin at a few record stores looking for albums like this.  Listening to it the better part of a decade later, I find the transitions the most interesting.  Even if it’s just something as simple as stepping on a distortion pedal, the textural differences between the different parts of the song only seems to quicken the pace.  Even if I still don’t understand the Gertrude Stein reference, I understand why Idlewild kept tiptoeing close to a breakthrough in the states.  It makes me wonder what kept them from rushing through the same way “Roseability” bursts through the speakers.

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